Another Reason to Get the Shingles Shot

Here's another reason to get the shingles (herpes zoster) shot: It may help you avoid the potentially increased cardiovascular risk after an outbreak.

In a recent Korean study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers followed 23,000 people who had shingles and found they were 59 percent more likely to have a heart attack and 35 percent more likely to have a stroke than their matched shingles-free counterparts. The increase in risk was greatest the first year after the onset of shingles and decreased with time. That worked out to about one extra stroke or heart attack per year in 1,000 people—not many, but still a concern.

Two studies in 2015 also linked shingles to a temporarily increased risk of stroke.